With the introduction of beach bike and multi-geared bikes with far greater than the traditional 3, 5 or 10 gears, biking has become increasingly popular. Along with this popularity has come the demand for bikes with quality parts that are affordable. One part of the bike in particular for both off-road (mountain bikes) and racing bikes that must meet stringent criteria is the crankarm to which the pedals are affixed. In turn the pedal is connected to a sprocket which of course holds a chain on one side of the bike and affixes to the drive sprocket on the other. Since crankarms are highly stressed, excellent strength to weight ratio designs have been desired but not necessarily obtainable.
In the past crank sets of steel or cast aluminum were made. The steel cranks were heavy by nature and the cast aluminum cranks were large in cross sectional dimensions in order to compensate for the low strength of cast aluminum. Also, large dimensions of course increase the weight. Next, cold forged and heat treated cromoly cranks were produced however the weight of these units was usually in exces of 600 grams, tending to be on the heavy side for cranks.